Gee Whiz, Technology! Essay Draft (800 words)
Jacob Osmer
Professor Miller
English 110
September 10, 2023
Gee Whiz, Technology! Essay
Technology is present in every part of our daily lives, whether it be the alarm on our cell phones that wakes us up every morning on time, “Googling” something, or sending an instant message to a friend or family member. Nicolas Carr’s essay, “Is Google Making us Stupid?” and Richard Forman’s fear that we’re becoming “pancake people” in contrast to the “cathedral-like” people of “complex and inner density…who carried inside themselves a personally constructed and unique version of the entire heritage of the West,” both point towards the negatives consequences of technology on the human mind. These viewpoints cannot be denied, and I do share many of their fears, but there is no doubt that technology has had many benefits for humanity.
According to the Pew Research Center, PRC, about 71% of Americans watch local news channels and about 65% watch networks news channels over the course of a month (PRC), which equates to about 236 million and 216 million Americans, respectively. However, these numbers have been changing. While most adults probably get their news from watching tv, younger adults and teens like me get their news from social media apps, where anyone can post about things going on in the world. I first found out about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on the morning news and from word of mouth, but almost everything I know about the conflict was filtered through social media and shown to me through some algorithm. Occasionally, social media sites like Youtube would flag videos as misinformation and provide an evidence-based explanation below, but most of the time I was just trusting that the information I was seeing was factual. It isn’t just me. PRC found that “over half of Americans (54%) either got their news ‘sometimes’ or ‘often’ from social media, and Facebook was the most popular social media site where American adults got their news.” Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube are filled with accounts that push out news, whether it be a legitimate news source or someone doing it for fun or monetary gain. It’s great that technology has allowed people across the country and the world to get news almost instantly, but is it all good? I am not sure that unfinished
Scott Karp wrote, “What if I do all my reading on the web not so much because the way I read has changed, i.e. I’m just seeking convenience, but because the way I THINK has changed?” Nicholas Carr used this in his essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, where Carr and his acquaintances all voice their concerns about the internet’s effect on their ability to read in-depth. “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print… I can’t read War and Peace anymore,” said Bruce Freidman. And I have found this prevalent in my life too — I always just thought I was a quick reader, finishing the English class assignments long before anyone else. Skimming is a great skill to have when you’re required to scan through a paper and find key points, but it’s quite a nuisance when pleasure reading. It wasn’t until I got into one of my more recent spontaneous bouts of reading that I realized I wasn’t actually reading. Just as Freidman in Carr’s essay observes, “Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it,” I found that I was letting my eyes slide across the pages, instead of taking in each individual word and taking the time to process them. However, unlike Freidman I don’t find myself reading online books. Reading pdfs can never replace the feeling of flicking through the pages of a physical paper book.
Carr’s essay includes a section on writer Friedrich Nietzsche whose eyes were failing just as the typewriter was invented, and how his writing style completely changed, “His already terse prose had become even tighter, more telegraphic.” And in the same way I wonder if the introduction of technology has changed how I write. Is the quality of my writing different between a handwritten quick-right while preparing for the AP Lit test versus the words I’m typing out right now?
My favorite part about Carr’s essay was when he brought up the concept of reading as an unnatural process, and that distractedness is our natural state. “To read a book is to practice an unnatural process of thought… We have to forge or strengthen the neural links needed to counter our instinctive distractedness, thereby gaining greater control over our attention and our mind. It is this control, this mental discipline, that we are at risk of losing as we spend ever more time scanning and skimming online. If the slow progression of words across printed pages damped our craving to be inundated by mental stimulation, the Internet indulges it. It returns us to our native state of distractedness, while presenting us with far more distractions than our ancestors ever had to contend with.” He portrays humanity’s unique ability to fight against our natural instincts; we are no longer surviving out in the wild, on alert for predators, surviving. In the modern age we can read, write, and relax.
Is Google Making Us Stupid? Nicolas Carr
[JO1]Introduce the thesis by using a quote from Nicolas Carr
[JO2]Site this
[JO3]Discuss the risks of social media news and question if it is worth it. Are there benefits to getting news a bit slower?
